Crime Wave Dampens New Year Cheer

By GABRIELLA  AYRES | Reporter

The sun was asleep for merely an hour when Palisadian homeowner Adam Cohen and his girlfriend left home for a quick bite in the village.

Away for a slim 50 minutes, Cohen returned from dinner at around 7:20 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 5 to find two uninvited guests ransacking his home on the 15200 block of de Pauw along the Potrero Canyon rim.
“I knew straightaway that something wasn’t right,” Cohen told the Palisadian-Post. “You can call it a gut instinct.”

After moving further into his home, the victim found a collection of his items piled onto the floor. In just a split second, the suspects—two white males, aged between 16 and 20—came running up a staircase out of Cohen’s direct vision.

“I did not see their faces, but I could tell that they had to be pretty young,” he said.

The suspects, who the victim believes were teenagers, had athletic builds and were dressed in well-fitted, fashionable attire—one of whom took off wearing a puffy parka coat belonging to the victim’s girlfriend.

“They were quick,” the victim said. “The two of them bounded up the basement steps and had to climb over a six-foot-tall side gate. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were neighborhood kids.”

In hopes of finding the suspects, Cohen reached out to neighbors with street-facing cameras.

Shortly thereafter, a nearby resident found that they had captured footage of two men walking slowly in the direction of the victim’s house at 6:26 p.m. At 7:16 p.m., the video showed the same two men glancing over their shoulders while walking quickly away from the victim’s home. Unfortunately, the street—and thus, the video footage—was dark and no facial features could be made out.

Elsewhere in the Palisades, Theresa Ellis, a visual effects artist, told the Post that she has had several packages stolen from her residence, most recently a parcel that USPS had confirmed delivered on Monday.

But this isn’t the first time a package has been stolen from Rygiel’s property.

“The items stolen included an expensive aromatic oil and a black Peruvian Connection dress,” Ellis said. “Other packages were for my husband and pertained to his work.”

The rise in theft in Pacific Palisades—particularly home burglary cases—has sparked residential discussions on new measures that can be taken to thwart criminal activity, such as requesting that the city install more neighborhood streetlights.

Others suggest that Palisadians should take matters into their own hands by forming a homeowner’s neighborhood patrol.

And area resident Ethan Wells inquired, “How do we get Ray Donovan (a popular television show bodyguard and ‘fixer’) on retainer?”

Until then, the Los Angeles Police Department is asking community members to discreetly photograph the license plates of any vehicles deemed suspicious.